Back in October 2025, our CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Eamon Fulcher spoke at CERTAMENTE, the Italian neuromarketing conference that’s become one of the more respected fixtures in the international calendar. It draws researchers, industry leaders, and behavioural scientists from across the world.
It was the right room for what he had to share.
The Study
Dr. Fulcher’s talk centred on The Queen’s Reading Room Study, a collaboration between Split Second Research, research agency Trinity McQueen, and The Queen’s Reading Room charity. Commissioned by the charity and endorsed by Queen Camilla, the research set out to rigorously test something most people assume but nobody had properly measured: what does reading fiction actually do to us?
The headline finding tends to stand out. Just five minutes of daily reading can deliver health benefits comparable to walking 10,000 steps or eating five portions of fruit and vegetables. The research also showed meaningful benefits for stress reduction, concentration, and emotional connectivity.
Queen Camilla, speaking at the charity’s third anniversary celebration where the findings were first presented, put it plainly: “Just as we always suspected, books are good for us — and now science is proving us right.”
On the International Stage
Being invited to present at CERTAMENTE was a meaningful moment for Split Second Research. The audience isn’t a general one, these are neuromarketing researchers and practitioners who understand the methodology, ask hard questions, and know the difference between rigorous work and a good story about it. Bringing a study of this scale, with this level of reach and recognition, to that room felt like the right fit. Original research, seriously presented, to people who could appreciate what went into it.
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